Pilot Watch 2017

While many shows are gearing up for grand finales, several face the chopping block as new pilots vie for a spot on the coveted primetime grid.

As the Networks gear up to present new fare during their annual Upfront presentations, first details on renewals, cancellations and new shows in the offing are already making the rounds.

While you can keep up to date on all the cancellation bloodshed in our sister article Has My Show Been Canceled?, here you will find a daily update* of all the new drama pilots that have successfully made it for the Fall 2017/18 primetime schedule — along with those that stand a decent chance of doing so in the coming weeks.

And while it’s really really far too early to give a solid first impression on any new show based on loglines, casting and initial premise (check back to read our reviews of all successful pilots later in the year) we’re going to attempt to do so anyway.

*changes in status will be indicated in bold, like so — Status: ** Ordered to Series** or **Rejected**

Additional pilots will be added to our list as they are announced.

And just in case you’re looking for a one-stop-stop for news on existing shows: Here’s a daily updated list of shows that have recently been renewed for the 2017/18 primetime schedule:

ABC:Quantico, Designated Survivor, Once Upon a Time, Agents of SHIELD, American Housewife, Modern Family, Speechless, The Goldbergs, Blackish, Fresh Off the Boat, The Middle, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, The Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars, Shark Tank

ABC

Deception (ABC)

Details: Renowned magician Cameron Black’s life has been ruined by scandal, leaving him only one place to turn to practice his art of deception, illusion and influence — the FBI. He’ll become the world’s first consulting illusionist, helping the government solve crimes that defy explanation and trap criminals and spies by using deception.

First Impressions: Following the demise of Forever (which we will never get over, fyi) we have room in our hearts for a light and quirky new drama with an oddball central character from ABC. This might fit the bill, provided the show doesn’t favor cleverness over heart.

The Crossing (ABC)

Details: Set 250 years in the future, refugees from a war-torn country start showing up to seek asylum in an American town. Loglines tease that the action will focus on local sheriff with a past, a federal agent and a mother in search of her missing refugee daughter. There’s also a surprise and a conspiracy at the center. The surprise is that these people are from America. Future America. Yes. This is a time travel story. Sorta. As for the conspiracy? We’ll have to wait and see.

First Impressions: Loving the not so subtle Modern America allegory. Not loving the prescient kid. Also, given how every time travel series ordered in the 2016/17 season has been canceled this week, is ABC correctly interpreting currents tastes for more?

The Good Doctor (ABC)

Details: This new series, based on a South Korean format, centers on a young surgeon (Freddie Highmore) with Savant syndrome who is recruited into the pediatric surgical unit of a prestigious hospital. Can a person who doesn’t have the ability to relate to people actually save their lives?

First Impressions: It looks like The Good Doctor is cast from the reliable ‘doc with an issue’ mold. Also, do you really have to ‘relate’ to people in order to be a good surgeon, considering you do your job when they’re out cold?

The Gospel of Kevin (ABC)

Details:Parenthood’s Jason Ritter and JoAnna Garcia (Once Upon a Time) had up this lighthearted not quite a comedy series about a down-and-out guy who is visited by a celestial being (God?) and essentially handed a mission to save the world. No pressure then.

For the People (ABC)

Details: This new ABC Studios and Shondaland legal drama is set in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Federal Court, aka “The Mother Court,” and follows newly minted lawyers working on opposite sides — for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high-profile and high-stakes cases in the country, all as their personal lives intersect.

First Impressions: This format, focusing on a revolving door of bright and beautiful medical interns — oops, we mean lawyers — struggling to balance their hectic careers with their personal lives is reminiscent of Grey’s Anatomy. In a good way. Prepare to add For the People to your #TGIT schedule.

Ten Days in the Valley (ABC)

Details: Starring Kyra Sedgwick this new series will focus on Centers on Jane Sadler, an overworked television producer and single mother who finds herself in the midst of a fractious separation. When her young daughter goes missing in the middle of the night, Jane’s world — and her controversial police series — implodes.

Life imitates art: Everything’s a mystery, everyone has a secret and no one can be trusted.

First Impressions: Why mid-season? Isn’t Ten Days strong enough to be a Fall contender?

Marvel’s Inhumans (ABC)

Details: Starring Hell on Wheels’ Anson Mount, Graceland’s Serinda Swan and Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon, this new Marvel series sets out to explore the adventures of Black Blot (Mount) and the Royal Family.

Status:**8 episodes ordered to series**

First Impressions: The Marvel franchise shows no signs of stopping…

CBS

Mission Control (CBS)

Details: This David Giuntoli (Grimm) NASA drama focuses on the next generation of astronauts and scientists who are faced with juggling both their personal and professional lives during a critical mission with no margin for error.

First Impressions: We would happily follow David Giuntoli from NBC to CBS, but what happens at the end of season one when the “critical mission” crisis has been averted?

Perfect Citizen (CBS)

Details: Noah Wyle (The Librarians, Falling Skies) heads up this drama as the former general counsel for the NSA who, after his involvement as a whistleblower in an international scandal, embarks on a new career at a storied law firm in Boston.

There, he faces the reality that while half the country thinks he’s our greatest patriot, the other half thinks he’s a traitor.

First Impressions: Is it a legal drama or a tense political thriller? Is it a procedural case of the week affair or something else? What? Tell us!

SEAL Team (CBS)

Details: This Navy SEAL drama first made headlines when it attracted the attention of Person of Interest alum Jim Caviezel. Following Caviezel’s departure from the project Bones star David Boreanaz signed up for the lead role.

The series follows the lives of the elite Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high stakes missions the country can ask.

Instinct (CBS)

Details: This Alan Cumming-starring drama centers on a former CIA operative who has since built a normal life as a gifted professor and writer but finds himself pulled back into his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer on the loose. (Based on an upcoming James Patterson book.)

S.W.A.T. (CBS)

Details: A local S.W.A.T. lieutenant (Criminal Minds’ Shemar Moore) is torn between loyalty to the streets and duty to his fellow officers when he’s tasked to run a highly trained unit that is the last stop for solving crimes in Los Angeles. (Inspired by S.W.A.T. the movie!)

First Impressions: CBS is the undisputed master of the procedural. Much may depend on how procedural SWAT leans.

Wisdom of the Crowd (CBS)

Details: If two minds are better than one then one million minds might just help solve a murder. This Jeremy Piven-starring drama sees a visionary tech innovator (Piven) creating a cutting-edge crowdsourcing app to solve his daughter’s murder, and revolutionize crime solving in the process. (Based on the Israeli format of the same name.)

First Impressions: We would watch this cast in anything. Even yet another Marvel project. It does sound a little like the Julie Benz and Michael Chiklis starrer No Ordinary Family though. (Remember that one?)

911 (FOX)

Details: From Ryan Murphy (American Crime Story, American Horror Story) and writing partner Brad Falchuk comes this Angela Basset-starring drama that focuses on the high pressure lives of 911 operators.

The series, described as an ER-style affair will likely see a mid-season launch on FOX.

Status:**Ordered to Series**

First Impressions: FOX definitely has room on its slate for something soapy this Fall. And with Ryan Murphy’s name attached? We’re in!

The Resident (FOX)

Details: An idealistic young doctor (Manish Dayal) begins his first day under the supervision of a tough, brilliant senior resident who pulls the curtain back on all of the good and evil in modern day medicine. Lives may be saved or lost, but expectations will always be shattered.

THE CW

Black Lightning (The CW)

Details:Hart of Dixie’s Cress Williams stars as Jefferson Pierce, an ex superhero who ‘hung up the suit’ and his secret identity years ago. However, with a daughter hell-bent on justice and a star student being recruited by a local gang, Pierce is pulled back into the fight as the wanted vigilante and DC legend — Black Lightning.

First Impressions: Is there room on the CW’s schedule for yet another DC Comics superhero? Of course there is.

Dynasty (the CW)

Details: A modern reboot of the iconic long-running series follows two of America’s wealthiest families, the Carringtons and the Colbys, as they feud for control over their fortune and their children.

The drama will unfold through the eyes of two women at odds: Fallon Carrington — daughter of billionaire Blake Carrington (Grant Show) — and her soon-to-be stepmother, Cristal (Nathalie Kelley) — a Hispanic woman marrying into this WASP family and America’s most powerful class.

In an age where dynasties appear everywhere — from reality TV to the polling booths — this epic drama features the one percent in all its glitz and gloss, while exposing the dark underbelly: a corrupt world built on backroom deals, betrayal, and, in some cases, murder.

Status:**Ordered to Series**

First Impressions: Only the CW could do justice to a reboot of Dynasty. Bring on the pretty people drama!

Valor (the CW)

Details: Starring Sleepy Hollow’s Matt Barr, this new series explores the boundaries between military discipline and human desire on a US Army base that houses an elite unit of helicopter pilots trained to perform clandestine international and domestic missions.

This flashback heavy drama unfolds a failed mission involving one of the first female pilots in the unit, ultimately uncovering layers of personal and government and military secrets, and leading to a season-long plan to rescue a group of MIA soldiers.

First Impressions: An interesting direction for the CW. We’re intrigued.

Life Sentence (The CW)

Details: This Lucy Hale-starring drama centers on a young woman diagnosed with terminal cancer who discovers that she’s not dying after all, and now has to learn to live with the choices she made when she decided to “live like she was dying.”

First Impressions: Welcome back to the CW, Lucy Hale. It’s been some time since Privileged, but there’s no doubt this actress has what it takes to front a show.

NBC

The Brave (FKA ‘For God and Country’) (NBC)

Details: Filmed on location in Morocco, this new series from NBC takes a heart-pounding look into the complex world of the country’s bravest military heroes who make personal sacrifices while executing the most challenging and dangerous missions behind enemy lines.

Reverie (NBC)

Details: From Mickey Fisher, the creator of Extant, this grounded new thriller follows Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi), a former hostage negotiator and expert on human behavior who became a college professor after facing an unimaginable personal tragedy. But when she’s brought in to save ordinary people who have lost themselves in a highly advanced virtual-reality program in which you can literally live your dreams, she finds that in saving others, she may actually have discovered a way to save herself.

Rise (NBC)

Details: This new ‘inspired by a true story’ drama series is based on the book by Michael Sokolove centers around a working-class high school drama department and the students who come alive under a passionate teacher and family man whose dedication to the program galvanizes the entire town.

Good Girls (NBC)

Details: This new drama focuses on three “good girl” suburban wives and mothers who suddenly find themselves in desperate circumstances. The action kicks off when they decide to stop playing it safe, and risk everything to take their power back.
The series stars Kathleen Rose Perkins, Mae Whitman, Retta, Matthew Lillard, Manny Montana, Reno Wilson, Lidya Jewerr, and Izzy Stannard.

Status: **Ordered to Series**

First Impressions: Ugh that title! (When can we start calling women women?) Also, might the premise have worked better as a comedy?